A self-service terminal (SST) is typically used to provide customers with information or transactions in an unattended environment. A common type of SST is an automated teller machine (ATM). One type of ATM enables a customer to insert media items (such as cash and/or checks) for (i) depositing, (ii) cashing (in the case of checks), or (iii) recycling (in the case of cash).
One problem associated with depositing cash is that it is possible that the deposit transaction is interrupted. For example, there may be a power failure during the transaction, or some inserted banknotes may become stuck (jammed) within the ATM before the banknotes can be validated. This may lead to a dispute between the customer and owner of the ATM (typically, but not always, a financial institution) as to the amount of cash that was inserted before the disruption occurred. Currently, the owner of the ATM performs a reconciliation process using error logs, application counts, and cash recovered from transport mechanisms in the ATM by a service engineer who was called to repair the ATM. This process is time-consuming, expensive, and leads to a poor customer experience.
One problem associated with dispensing cash is that a fraudulent customer may remove part of a presented bunch, allowing the remaining part of the bunch to be retracted. The ATM would record this as the customer not taking the dispensed cash. However, when the contents of the purge bin (which receives the remaining part of the cash) are reconciled with the transaction, only some of the dispensed cash would be present.
It is among the objects of an embodiment of the present invention to provide an improved process for reconciliation of disrupted transactions in an ATM.